The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1887-07-23
AMERICAN MATCHES.
Sixty Thousand Millions Produced Annu.
ally in the United States,


The statistics gathered by the board
of underwriters for New York City
show that nearly one-third of the fires
are caused by the careless use of
matches. Whether the safety match
now in common use does away with
the danger of fire is disputed ques-
ton. Their chief merit is that they
will not take fire when stepped upon,
and rats and mice can not light them
by nibbling. The inception of the
safety match dates frdM the introduce
ton of red, or amorphous, phosphorus
in place of common phosphorus,
which caused serious ill-health among
the match-makers. Red phosphorus is
harmless to the matchmaker and to
the child who may happen to taste it.
But it will not mix with chlorate of
potash, and so finally the splint was
tipped with chlorate of potash and the
phosphorus mixed with very fine sand
and put on the box. A German named
Kammerer was the first to make them,
and it was once thought that they
would drive the sulphur match out of
use. In England the use of any other
kind was forbidden by act of Parla-
ment. In Sweden and Switzer-
land they are almost the only matches
used. The necessity of carrying
the box with the matches is, of course,
their great drawback, and many at
tempts to make safety match which
could be lighted without the box have
been made. A match with the phos-
phorus at one end and the potash at
the other was once introduced; the
splint had to be broken in two and the
ends rubbed together in order to light.
Imported safety matches made in Swe-
den and Austria are beginning to make
much Roadway owing to their extreme
cheapness. At present they can be
bought, Notwithstanding the duty of
80 per cent. on the matches and 100
per cent. on the boxes, for almost the
same price as the commonest sulphur
match. One dollar a gross is an aver
age price, or about 12l matches for a
cent. The box containing each hum
dred matches is an ingenious affair,
being composed of thick shaving of
wood with notches cut where the cor
ners come. Safety matches in boxes
containing fifty matches are retailed at
seventy-tve cents gross. The Treas
ury decision leyying a duty of 100 per
cent. upon the box is due to the plea
that the box is really part of the match;
without it the splints of wood are not
matches in the ordinary sense of the
word. There is but one firm in this
country which makes safety matches.
The price of American-made matches
is higher than that of the imported ones.
but it is said that they are of a far bet
ter quality.
One firm in this country makes wax
matches, the machinery being ingenious
and almost automatic throughout. But
owing to the competition of Italian and
French wax matches, it is a small bus.
mess still. The little fancy boxes OF
wax tapers sold for cent can not be
made at all in this country for that
price, and our manufacturers do not
know how they are imported and sold
for that price at profit. One maker
in Austria is said to make wax matches
at the rate of ten miles of taper day,
using several tons of phosphorus every
year
According to the census of 1880 there
were then thirty-seven establishments
engaged in making matches in the
United States, employing capital of
81, 114,S50, and turning out $4,6G8, 446
worth of matches. This represents
about sixty thousand million matches.
At present the number of establish
ments is smaller, but the capital and
product much larger. Since the removal
of the revenue tax of one cent on every
hundred matches prices have fallen
about one-half, and the consumption is
said to have increased nearly one
third
The largest match factories in the
world are in Austria, two Austrian
firms making almost as many matches
as are made in this country France
makes more matches than the United
States, having large export trade.
They are made by one firm, which, in
1872, agreed to pay the Government
S3,200,00O a year for the exclusive right
of manufacturing for twenty years.
Our American match manufacturers
say that the improvements to be looked
for in matches will concern quality
rather than cheapness. A match that
will resist water is much to be desired;
also a safety, non-pOisonous match
which can be lighted without the box;
a match which will give out pleasant
perfume is desired, and, lastly, match
of some other material than wood, but